Pilomatricoma – An Experience in Eastern Nepal

Abstract

Pilomatricoma are calcifying cutaneous tumor of the hair matrix cells . Few
studies on clinical and histopathological spectrum of pilomatricomas are available
from the western countries with occasional reports from Indian subcontinent. Five years retrospective analysis from the requisition forms and case records of biopsy samples received in the Department of Pathology, B. P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan, Nepal, during January 2001 – December 2006 was done where pilomatricoma was reported as the final diagnosis to see the prevalence, common site, age of presentation and correlation between clinical and histopathological diagnosis in Eastern Nepal.
Total numbers of cases studied were 21. The age of patients ranged from 11-70 years. Duration of lump varied from 5 months to 6 years. There were 6 males (28.6%) and 15 females (71.4%). Of all patients, 90.47% had solitary lesions. In 14 cases (66.67 %) the tumor was located in the head and neck region, the commonest site being face seen in 9 cases (64.29%). The size of the tumor varied from 0.2 – 3.0 cm. Only in 4 cases (19.04%), clinical diagnosis of pilomatricoma was considered. Six cases (28.57%) of pilomatricoma cases were diagnosed on fine needle aspiration. Of the commonly reported features the presence of basaloid cells and ghost cells in cytology smears associated with a cutaneous location of the lesion was sufficient for a confident cytologic diagnosis of pilomatricoma.

Keywords: Pilomatricoma; calcifying epithelioma; Eastern Nepal.

Sudanese Journal of Dermatology Vol. 6 (1) 2008: pp. 26-33